The Project Gutenberg Etext of Moby Dick, by - Plano Library ...

Moby Dick or The Whale
CHAPTER 53
The Gam.
T
HE ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had
spoken was this: the wind and sea betokened storms. But even had this not
been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded her--judging by
his subsequent conduct on similar occasions--if so it had been that, by the process of
hailing, he had obtained a negative answer to the question he put. For, as it eventually
turned out, he cared not to consort, even for five minutes, with any stranger captain, except
he could contribute some of that information he so absorbingly sought. But all this
might remain inadequately estimated, were not something said here of the peculiar usages
of whaling-vessels when meeting each other in foreign seas, and especially on a
common cruising-ground.
If two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New York State, or the equally desolate
Salisbury Plain in England; if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable
wilds, these twain, for the life of them, cannot well avoid a mutual salutation; and stopping
for a moment to interchange the news; and, perhaps, sitting down for a while and
resting in concert: then, how much more natural that upon the illimitable Pine Barrens
and Salisbury Plains of the sea, two whaling vessels descrying each other at the ends of
the earth--off lone Fanning’s Island, or the far away King’s Mills; how much more natural,
I say, that under such circumstances these ships should not only interchange hails,
but come into still closer, more friendly and sociable contact. And especially would this
seem to be a matter of course, in the case of vessels owned in one seaport, and whose
captains, officers, and not a few of the men are personally known to each other; and
consequently, have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about.
For the long absent ship, the outward-bounder, perhaps, has letters on board; at any
rate, she will be sure to let her have some papers of a date a year or two later than the
last one on her blurred and thumb-worn files. And in return for that courtesy, the outward-bound
ship would receive the latest whaling intelligence from the cruisingground
to which she may be destined, a thing of the utmost importance to her. And in
degree, all this will hold true concerning whaling vessels crossing each other’s track on
the cruising-ground itself, even though they are equally long absent from home. For
one of them may have received a transfer of letters from some third, and now far remote
vessel; and some of those letters may be for the people of the ship she now meets.
Besides, they would exchange the whaling news, and have an agreeable chat. For not
only would they meet with all the sympathies of sailors, but likewise with all the pecu-
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